Archi.ru:
Architectural competitions for the development of Tuchkov Buyan have been held for more than a hundred years, and still have no results. Tell us about your first job for this territory - the residential area "Naberezhnaya Evropy". For 2009, this was an unusual proposal - to attract a dozen foreign bureaus to work on the facades
Evgeny Gerasimov:
It was an international competition organized by VTB-Development together with the city. Participants included Jose Rafael Moneo, David Chipperfield, Mario Botta, Studio-44, Zemtsov, Condiain and Partners. Our consortium with nps tchoban voss won with the idea of a complex drawn with more than one hand: the master plan implied the participation of different architects, which was done - we invited a number of Western colleagues, continuing the tradition according to which St. Petersburg was built largely by foreign architects. Sergei Tchoban and I are staunch supporters of this approach. For example, in the Europa-City complex, we distributed ten internal “points” to five young architects. I still believe that the "Embankment of Europe" is an ideal project for this place, moreover, self-sustaining, with a pedestrian embankment facing south, a square and a theater. For which a separate competition was then held, in which the UNStudio bureau won.
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zooming 1/5 "Embankment of Europe". Project - the winner of the architectural and urban planning competition in 2009 © "Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 2/5 "Embankment of Europe". Project - the winner of the architectural and urban planning competition © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners, nps tchoban voss
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zooming 3/5 "Embankment of Europe". Project - the winner of the architectural and urban planning competition © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners, nps tchoban voss
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zooming 4/5 "Embankment of Europe". The project is the winner of the architectural and urban planning competition. Design Bureau Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners, Evgeny Gerasimov, St. Petersburg, Russia, and NPS Tchoban Voss GbR, Sergei Tchoban, Berlin, Germany. © "Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 5/5 "Embankment of Europe". Project - the winner of the architectural and urban planning competition © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners, nps tchoban voss
How did the change of course to the Judicial District come about? The same as recently with the park?
Yes, literally on click. We developed the “project” stage, without spending budget funds, the most harmful GIPH (State Institute of Applied Chemistry, - editor's note) was removed, the land was reclaimed. This was followed by a political decision to build the Supreme Court complex. The state paid off with VTB - as far as I remember the order of the amount, it was about 11 billion rubles.
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zooming 1/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 2/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 3/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 4/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 5/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 6/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 7/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 8/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 9/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 10/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 11/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 12/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 13/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 14/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
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zooming 15/15 "Embankment of Europe" "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners", nps tchoban voss
Tell us how it happened that instead of Maksim Atayants, your workshop began to design the Court Quarter?
A new competition was announced - an ordinary Russian competition without foreign jury members and foreign architects in the final. Maxim Atayants won. I do not dispute the decision of the jury, but one must be aware that none of the professional architects voted for Atayants. It was the choice of officials, artists, writers and public figures. The majority voted for Atayants, with which I congratulated him. Sergei Choban and I concluded that this story is over for us. Completely relaxed on this topic.
And then the team in the Presidential Property Management Department changed, which was entrusted with implementing this whole venture. And after some time they turned to me with a question: would we not undertake with Sergei Choban to develop a project on the competitive concept of Atayants. We refused because we don't do such things. I asked why such a question arose. To which I received an answer: the Atayants bureau does not have production capacities to issue design estimates, no one will entrust such work to the bureau without relevant experience in general design. And again we forgot about this story.
About half a year later, the Moscow company "Saturn", appointed as the general designer of the Judicial Quarter, contacted us with a proposal to quickly prepare a new concept. When asked what was happening, whether Atayants' tender documentation would be implemented, we received an answer - no, it will not. We have prepared a new concept based on new wishes and considerations. She suited everyone who made a decision on this issue. And under the leadership of "Saturn" we began to work. In record time, the "project" stage was completed, which passed the Glavgosexpertiza in Moscow the first time. The project was approved by the City Council. Then the working documentation was completely made and construction began, which continues to this day.
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zooming 1/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
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zooming 2/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
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zooming 3/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
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zooming 4/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
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zooming 5/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
Why is your final concept of the Judicial District different from the competition? Have the terms of reference and budget changed?
It's just that time has passed, our views and the views of the customer have changed. After dismantling the GIPH, a visual axis appeared between the spit of Vasilyevsky Island and the bell tower of the Prince Vladimir Cathedral. This prospect never existed, the cathedral was always closed by something - wine warehouses or factories, then GIPH. It became a pity to lose this look, the concept was built for it. We grouped the buildings as compactly as possible, creating a visual corridor and freeing up four hectares for a park.
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zooming 1/5 Project of the Judicial District, actual for the spring of 2019 "Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners"
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zooming 2/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
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zooming 3/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
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zooming 4/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
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zooming 5/5 Judicial quarter "Evgeny Gerasimov and partners"
Is it possible to say that the money invested in Naberezhnaya Evropa and the Judicial District was not in vain? Still, the GIPH was taken out of the city center, the soil was cleared, and by the beginning of the implementation of the park, in fact, the zero cycle will be completed
The preparatory work was not done in vain. But 5,000 piles were driven in, columns and walls of the basements and ceilings were made. All basements are ready. And again, a political decision at a click: before the elections, Mr. Beglov announced a new initiative to make an art park instead of the Judicial District.
Why didn't your bureau take part in the competition for the concept of the park?
We did not apply because we thought it was a strange idea. And the biggest strangeness in it is the Boris Eifman Theater on the corner of the park. In a complex of neoclassical buildings, this architectural mix looked like part of a whole. But now we can safely say - this is an urban planning mistake. Urban planning feasibility was sacrificed to the political one.
The competition itself is very strange: a strange organizer, a strange choice of finalists, hence the result - there is nothing to choose. I believe that it would be appropriate to make an analogue of the Tauride Garden in this place. Invite the Committee for Improvement and on this end the squandering of the people's money. It seems to me that there are enough green spaces on the Petrograd side. Better to put in order what we have - Aleksandrovsky Park, for example. And a full-fledged park on the site of the Judicial Quarter will no longer work. One hundred kilometers of piles have been concreted.
Trees won't grow?
Of course. Show me at least one project where a pine tree has grown on an embankment - the grass grows with difficulty. We are told that trees in concrete parking lots will grow in 30 years, and I believe that this is a deception of the public. But there will be no one to punish, and this is the calculation.
It is also proposed to make a greenhouse. But we already have two greenhouses - in the Tauride and the Botanical Gardens. Are they in perfect condition? Are greenhouses not enough for us? You can simply entrust the work to Larisa Viktorovna Kanunnikova - the only landscape specialist in our city who has at least some positive experience - the improvement of the Karpovka embankment. At least everything is more or less reasonable there.
You had a proposal to “cut down” the courts and expand the fleet - could this still happen?
Yes. Since the entire zero cycle for the theater and the judicial department has been completed, I propose to build them. The Supreme Court will be moved to the place of a residential area, and the judges will buy housing from developers on the neighboring Petrovsky Island. To create a logical urban planning composition and an understandable landscape park like the Tavrichesky Garden. Of the 9 hectares of the park, 5.5 hectares remain, which is quite enough for this place. And there will be no need to look for new territories for ships, to cut down greenery somewhere.
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zooming 1/4 Project of the Judicial District, actual for the spring of 2019 © "Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners"
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zooming 2/4 New proposal of Evgeny Gerasimov for Tuchkov Buyan: reduction, but preservation of the Judicial District on Vatny Island © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 3/4 Scheme: the project of the Judicial District, relevant for the spring of 2019 / AB project Evgeny Gerasimov and partners © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 4/4 Scheme: the possibility of “densifying” the buildings of the Judicial Quarter and freeing up space for the park © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
What does all this experience mean for your bureau?
There were no big financial losses. We were paid by both VTB-Development and the Presidential Administration. Ten years of work that ended in nothing is not great, it is not typical for our bureau to work in a basket, but for us and for me personally it is not a disaster. It happens. Such a country. Thank God, we have many projects, and we have something to be proud of. I am offended for the state, as the hero of the movie "White Sun of the Desert" said. Instead of a sound commercial project, people's money was spent on compensation for VTB's costs, then on the epic with the court, and now it is being spent for the third time on the park.
